Was it a sort of praise or simply recognition of the reality? I remember the continual concerns that he wouldn't deliver in the final innings. I also remember about how refreshing it was with Mark Craig (!) that he had actually bowled us to a couple of victories despite his limitations. I guess as well, Vettori did add value with the bat - and was probably at times more reliable than some of our batsman - during the 2nd half of his career.
it doesn't make sense and I'm not quite sure why it's even being brought up here
15-20 years ago this was a common argument on CW, with me saying pretty much what we're saying now while others lavished praise on Vettori's bowling. That is probably about as remote as unspoken context gets though I guess lol.
That's the bit that's arguable I guess. He was a passable bowler whose performances roughly matched up with the mid-range of the performances of his teammates and opponents, as these stats show. He had longevity due to a lack of competition in NZ.
NO
I think Wagner/Vettori would've been a ****ing insane partnership on our seamy roads.
Afridi too
He was the only one worse off than average in that list so worth noting. Vettori is basically the spin bowling equivalent to Boucher so I'm surprised to rate him.
Ishant too but he was so crap for so long that it's hardly surprising.
That's not what I mean, that part is worth noting. What I don't get is the "his replacements would have been worse so that makes it better" angle
Steyn being OP and Imran being clearly better than Wasim/Waqar is good.
Was just a reference to the sort of things Vettori-boosters used to (effectively if not directly) say in the ancient times on this site
But Jadeja only bowls on dust bowls where everyone takes an 8-fer
Guess they’re taking 8’fers at a crap average then.
Just a sneak peak of this with 11 noted batsmen